Video installation, memory and storytelling : the viewer as narrator

Much has been written about memory and its link with the visual where memory is likened to our recollection of vignettes or visual traces. Conway (1999) tells us that the brain takes in experience as word and image. Gibson (2002) suggests that “imagistic cognition” is a process whereby we run image sequences through our heads while trying to make sense of experience. He links this psychological phenomenon with notions of film editing theory and practice. He goes on to suggest that the power of the cinema is linked to this primal experience of remembering that elicits the intense pleasures of childhood and access to a means of navigating the self. This paper will explore the role video installation can play in creating an open, enticing, non-threatening and immersive environment, where viewers can transcend the everyday, reflect on their own memories and recall their personal stories. I will argue that there is a symbiotic link between what I will call the viewer as flâneur and the producer of the work such that a new form of storytelling can be created through this relationship.